Moms Say Xanax Helps Them Be Better Mothers

(ABC News)–More and more people are taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety
medications, and among that number is a growing legion of women who say
these medications help them become better mothers.

One such mother, Anne-Marie Lindsey, says her daily pill regimen
wards off paralyzing panic attacks. She has an infant son, and the new
mother worries about him.

“Without the medication, my mind starts racing, and it can't stop,
‘What if he gets sick? What if he gets sick? What if he gets sick?',”
the New Haven, Conn., woman told “Good Morning America”
in an interview that aired Wednesday on the show. “I might need to be
in a bathroom with the door locked, hyperventilating, ‘what if he gets
sick?'”

A study that will be published in the medical journal, Pediatrics,
next month suggests as many as one in five new mothers suffers from
heightened anxiety in the weeks and months after childbirth. Researchers
at Penn State College of Medicine are now encouraging friends, family
members and doctors who are treating new mothers to monitor them closely
for anxiety disorders so that the mother and baby can get the support
they need in the first critical months of a child's life, HealthDay News
reports.

Doctors now monitor new mothers for postpartum depression, but not
for anxiety. Researchers reportedly found that anxiety – acute
emotions in response to a perceived stressful, dangerous or threatening
situation — was more common than depression after pregnancy, HealthDay
also reported.

Melissa Sanchez told “GMA” that she had several panic attacks after her son was born, adding that she “psychically collapsed.

“I couldn't get out of bed all weekend …,” Sanchez, of Manhattan, said.

She reluctantly agreed with a therapist's recommendation that she start taking Celexa, a drug that would calm her nerves.

“After about six weeks, I was back to myself,” Sanchez said.

She has no doubt that her anti-anxiety drug made her a better mother.

“Oh, absolutely … I don't think I would have been able to function,”
she said, adding that, without the drug “I think I would have been
admitted somewhere. I really do.”

Lindsey and Sanchez were each under a doctor's care when they were prescribed the medications.

A February article in Parenting magazine focused on the practice of
taking the medications – such as Zoloft, Prozac and Xanax — for this
purpose. The story was titled “Xanax Makes Me a Better Mom,” and it set off a heated debate.

Michelle Canarick is a therapist who specializes in mothers. She says
medication can be a good thing, but only under a doctor's supervision.

“I think mothers should be thinking of it as …'I'm going through a
hard time and I'm going to use medication to get me through this',” she
said, adding that the use of the medications shouldn't be “a forever
kind of idea.”

Ann McWilliams calls her time on Xanax a temporary fix. The Petal, Miss., mother and author of the blog “Mommy Needs a Xanax,” went on the medication when full-time parenting felt like just too much.

“It did get me over a speed bump … It helped to remove me from the high-pressure feeling that I had,” McWilliams said.

Aware of the addictive nature of Xanax, McWilliams recently weaned
herself off of the drug, but she – and Sanchez and Lindsey – all say no
one should judge mothers who turn to medication.

“How can you be a good mom if you don't take care of yourself?”
McWilliams said. “You wouldn't tell a diabetic not to take a medication
just because they're a mom … I don't know why anyone would tell anyone
who needs a medication not to take a medication just because she's a
mother.”

For more information and resources to help with postpartum depression, please click HERE and HERE.